Jonathan Dienst is NBC New York’s Chief Investigative Reporter and Chief Justice Contributor for NBC News. Dienst’s reporting is featured on WNBC newscasts and digital properties. Dienst also regularly appears on NBC national programs including NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, NBC News Now, and The Today Show. He also appears on Dateline and CNBC, and he regularly contributes to NBCNews.com.
Dienst helps lead WNBC and NBC News coverage of major breaking news ranging from terrorism to public corruption, white collar crime to mass shootings. His reporting has included: coverage of former President Trump’s alleged abuses; alleged wrongdoing by Sen. Robert Menendez, Sen. Robert Torricelli, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik, former NY Governors Cuomo, Spitzer, Paterson, NY Senate leader Joe Bruno, NY Assembly Speaker Silver, former Westchester DA Jeanine Pirro, among other federal, state and local officials. He also played an important role in WNBC’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, the large-scale protests following the murder of George Floyd and the impact of those protests across the region.
Dienst joined NBC shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. For more than 20 years, he has helped spearhead the network’s coverage of significant terror-related incidents at home and abroad. Dienst also covers the NYPD and major crime stories from coast to coast – from school shootings in Newtown and Uvalde, to significant organized crime cases and to corruption on Wall Street.
Prior to joining NBC, Dienst worked as a reporter for WPIX-TV in New York from 1996-2001 and was one the original reporters who helped launch NY 1 News in 1992. He covered the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the mass shooting on the LIRR later that same year, and the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800. His first on-air position was with WSAV in Savannah, GA where he helped cover that city’s skyrocketing crime rate and local police corruption. Dienst also had experience working behind the scenes at Fox 5 New York, and has written articles for the NY Times, Newsday and the NY Post. Dienst’s exclusive reporting has received recognition and awards including: Associated Press, Emmy, Murrow, Columbia-DuPont, NY Press Club, Investigative Reporters and Editors, among others.
Dienst is a graduate of Colgate University and received his MS in Journalism from Columbia University.
The Latest
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NY judge orders Friday hearing for man shot by ICE with 5-year-old in car
Protests are expected in Foley Square later Friday. Meanwhile, the NYPD has released bodycam footage showing the moments its first officers arrived at the shooting scene.
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Outrage mounts after ICE agents shoot NYC suspect with a 5-year-old in his back seat
Protests are expected in Foley Square later Friday. Meanwhile, the NYPD has released bodycam footage showing the moments its first officers arrived at the shooting scene.
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‘Unconscionable': ICE agents shoot NYC criminal suspect with a 5-year-old in back seat
Mayor Mamdani says he spent hours on the phone with President Trump and the head of DHS trying to get the man released
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Smirking Bronx dad who allegedly threw mom, baby off 15th-floor balcony heads for pysch evaluation
Nathaly Ramirez, 23, was holding her daughter when she was pushed from an apartment balcony in the Bronx. Her body cushioned her baby’s fall.
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Have you seen him? NYPD identifies man who allegedly threw mom, baby off balcony
Nathaly Ramirez, 23, was holding her daughter when she was pushed from an apartment balcony in the Bronx. Her body may have cushioned her baby’s fall.
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NTSB investigating horrific subway dragging death in Brooklyn as questions swirl
The MTA examined the train and found it was functioning properly, including the doors. What remains unclear is whether the conductor followed proper protocol.
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Horrifying new details emerge in man's subway bag death
The man, in his 50s, was holding a plastic bag that got stuck in the train doors in Bedford-Stuyvesant, according to a law enforcement source.
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Man charged with murdering 63-year-old woman in Central Park
Police say the 63-year-old victim was found in the bustling NYC park with head trauma.
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NYPD shoots and kills knife-wielding man climbing cables on Brooklyn Bridge
Friday’s shooting marks the second deadly NYPD shooting this week. Police officials said at a morning press conference that the man advanced on ESU officers with a knife.
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LaGuardia air traffic controllers left early on day of deadly runway crash: Report
Two air traffic controllers left early the night of March 22, NBC News reports — a full hour before their shift ended, as well as an hour before the crash occurred, which left two pilots dead and two members of a Port Authority fire crew badly hurt.
